Letter to the Editor{123}

"We are not strong enough to bring about an uprising… therefore there is no reason to connect it with the Duma… the slogan of agitation is a constituent assembly." Thus wrote the Bund, and the author of the article in No. 16[98] answered them insufficiently.

These words of the Bund are an excellent reflection of philistinism in social-democracy—philistinism in the sense of vulgarity, the golden mean, colorlessness, commonplaces, mediocrity (which the Bund has always been, playing the role of an ideological parasite, as is known, both in 1897–1900, and in 1901–1903, and in 1904, and now in 1905).

This is a hackneyed view, the usual point of view, "common sense" (the "triumph of common sense" in Osvobozhdeniye and "enlightenment").

This is the greatest falsity, the exposure of which is of paramount importance for the Russian revolution—and for the conscious proletariat, as the only possible author of a victorious revolution.

We are not strong enough to bring about an uprising, therefore we must not connect it, therefore the slogan is not armed uprising, but a constituent assembly.

This is the same as saying: we, naked and destitute, hungry and tormented, are not strong enough to rise from our swamp, where we are perishing, to that mountain, where there is light and sun, air and all the fruits of the earth. We have no ladder, without which ascent is impossible. We are not strong enough to obtain a ladder. Therefore we must not connect our struggle for ascent with the slogan of obtaining (respectively[99] creating) a ladder. Therefore our slogan should be: to the mountain, to the mountain, on the mountain there is happiness and deliverance, air and light, encouragement and support.

Since there is no ladder, without which one cannot ascend—therefore we must not take as our slogan the obtaining of a ladder and work on its manufacture—therefore the slogan should be: get yourselves up there, on the mountain, on the mountain happiness, etc.!

"Weakness has always been saved by faith in miracles," said Marx!{124}

Is it the weakness of the proletariat or the weakness of the heads of the Bundists and the new Iskra that is now being saved by faith in miracles?—faith in getting to the mountain without a ladder?—faith in a constituent assembly without an uprising?

This faith is the faith of madmen. Without an armed uprising, a constituent assembly is a phantom, a phrase, a lie, Frankfurt palaver.

The deception and falsity of Osvobozhdeniye, that first broad political, mass-political, popular form of bourgeois slogan in Russia, consists precisely in supporting this faith in miracles, this lie. For the liberal bourgeoisie needs its lie; for it this is not a lie, but the greatest truth, the truth of its class interests, the truth of bourgeois freedom, the truth of capitalist equality, the holy of holies of merchant brotherhood.

This is its (the bourgeoisie's) truth, for it does not need the victory of the people, not the mountain, but the swamp for the masses, and the sitting on the shoulders of the rabble for the big shots and money bags, not victory, but a deal, an agreement with the enemy, = betrayal to the enemy.

For the bourgeoisie this is not a "miracle," but reality—the reality of betrayal of the revolution, not victory of the revolution.

…We are not strong enough to obtain a ladder… we are not strong enough to bring about an uprising… Is that so, gentlemen?

If so, then remake your entire propaganda and agitation, then begin to speak new, remade speeches to the workers and all the people, newly constructed, different speeches.

Then speak to the people: workers of Petersburg, Riga, Warsaw, Odessa, Tiflis… we are not strong enough to raise an uprising and win in an uprising. Therefore we have no reason to think, no reason to chatter uselessly about an all-national constituent assembly. Do not soil great words with petty evasions. Do not cover your weakness with faith in miracles. Cry out to all and sundry about this weakness—consciousness is half the cure. False phrases, false boasting is moral ruin, a sure pledge of political destruction.

Workers! We are weak in bringing about an uprising and winning victory in it! Therefore cast aside talk of an all-national constituent assembly, drive away from yourselves the liars who speak of this, expose the betrayal of the Osvobozhdeniye men, the Duma deputies, the Cadets and all other filth, for they in words only want an all-national constituent assembly, but in deed an anti-national one, not establishing the new, but patching the old, not giving you new clothes, new life, new weapons for new great struggle, but only spangles on your old rags, only a mirage and deception, a toy instead of a weapon, chains instead of a rifle.

Workers! We are weak for an uprising. Do not speak then and do not allow the prostitutes of Osvobozhdeniye, the Cadets and Duma deputies to speak of revolution, do not allow these bourgeois blackguards to soil the great popular concept with their linguistic debauchery.

We are weak? That means we have no revolution and cannot have one. This is not the revolution of the people, this is the swindling of the people by Petrunkevichs and a pack of liberal lackeys of the tsar. This is not a struggle for freedom, this is the selling of popular freedom for the chairs of the Osvobozhdeniye men. This is not the beginning of new life, but the strengthening of the old languor, the penal servitude, the old stagnation and decay.

We are not strong enough to bring about an uprising, comrade workers! We are not strong enough to raise the people to revolution! We are not strong enough to achieve freedom… We are only strong enough to shake the enemy, not to topple him, to shake him so that Petrunkevich sits down beside him. Away then with all talk of revolution, of freedom, of popular representation—whoever speaks of these things without working in deed on the ladder to obtain them, on the uprising to conquer them, is a liar and a scoundrel, he is deceiving you.

We are weak, comrade workers! We have only the entire proletariat and millions of peasants on our side, who have begun a scattered, dark, unarmed, blind struggle.

Against us is the entire court clique and all workers and peasants dressed in soldier's uniform and… [100]

The end. We are weak. Weakness is saved by faith in miracles. This is a fact—from the words of the Bund, from the plan of Iskra.

But what is the fact, gentlemen? The weakness of the forces of the proletariat of all Russia, or the weakness of the heads of the Bundists and the new Iskra men??

Speak the truth:

1) There is no revolution. There is a deal of the liberal bourgeoisie with the tsar…

2) There is no struggle for freedom. There is the selling of popular freedom.

3) There is no struggle for popular representation. There is the representation of the money bag.

We are weak… from this inevitably flows all betrayal of the revolution.

If you want revolution, freedom, popular representation… you must be strong.

Written in September 1905

First published in 1926 in Leninskiy Sbornik V